Dubai: Dubai Kartdrome 600 Kilometers Endurance Race

May 18, 2013

Dubai Falcons celebrate after a controlled 12 hr race win

Led by Sheikh Hasher Al Maktoum, the Dubai Falcons Racing Team soared to victory in the Dubai Kartdrome 600 Laps, Round 2 of the Kartdrome Endurance Championship driven by Mini, and with it have won the final race ahead of the summer break in the UAE.

Up against one of the strongest grids ever assembled for endurance racing at the Motorcity based karting venue, Dubai Falcons recovered from a mediocre start on a hot balmy night, at 21:00 to take command of the race around midnight and acknowledged the chequered flag at 09:20 on Saturday.

With Sheikh Hasher, Saeed Al Mehairi and Mohammed Al Mutawaa on driving duty for in the Sky Dive Dubai and TAG Heuer backed kart, and Mike Willkes making the calls from the pitwall along with Luigi Gariano the outfit made few mistakes and kept a relentlessly consistent pace throughout the 600 laps.

Sheikh Hasher said afterwards, “It feels really great to win here today. The last race before summer, we go away on a high. We had very tough competition from CG Racing throughout the race. We could not relax at all. We did not have the best start, but managed to stay in touch with the top three. CG Racing 2 was very strong early in the race. But as the race developed we started to get an advantage with the second and then the third stint. From then on I think we started to control the race.”

Saeed Al Mehairi with another consistent stint during the morning

To CG Racing he said, “Well done to them they are a strong team. Hard luck to them and I look forward to the next battle with them.”

By the time the chequered flag fell after 12 hours and 21.52 seconds, the Dubai Falcons had an advantage of three laps and had recorded the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1 minute 10.449 seconds. Apart from the overall win, and Pro Category top points score, as an all Emirati team they also took the Nations Cup prize.

Taking the flag the Dubai Falcons celebrate with the usual water soaking for the driver

Chasing hard all night long were CG Racing Pro with SWS Endurance world champions Alban Varutti and Ramez Azzam in the line-up along with David Terrien and Rami Azzam.

Behind them were teammates, CG Racing 2, who finished third overall and with that took top honours in the highly competitive Corporate Category. Their driver line-up was Magid Traboulsi, Omar Moukachar, Salem Salem and Piers Pakenham-Walsh.

Crowning a strong race for the Choueiri Group backed outfit were CG Racing 1, who were fifth overall and made it one-two for the team in the Corporate Category.

Team captain Oliver Saade said afterwards, “We started out very well and were running second early on in the race. We dropped down to 14th at one stage, and this was a big challenge. But the boys dug deep and put in the hard work, showing their skills, not only the drivers but also the support crew who handled the strategy. As usual there was great team spirit and again a good result for the entire team.”

On the final results sheets the two CG Racing corporate squads were split by fourth placed Timeless Racing.

Dubai 5 and TrackTalk Mediaboltz were seventh and eighth respectively, with MBC Action Racing ninth and with that third in the Corporate Category.

In tenth were PGK Racing, followed by Team Emirates 11th and Team Flash rounding out the top dozen.

Dubai Autodrome General Manager Richard Birch summed up the night/ day race, “The drivers really enjoyed the Switchback track configuration and as a result we saw some close racing throughout the 600 laps. Congratulations not only to the winners Dubai Faclons (Pro) and CG Racing 2 (Corporate) but also to all those who competed. Tough conditions at this time of the year make it a huge challenge to race in this type of endurance racing at the Kartdrome. Finishing is victory in itself.

Round 3 of the the Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship driven by Mini is scheduled to take place on 4 October 2013.